Michelle Yeoh reacted to the results of the 2023 Bafta Awards earlier this year by skipping the event’s official dinner and ordering “Malaysian fast food” instead.
The Everything, Everywhere All At Once star, who was nominated for best actress at the awards, attended the ceremony on 19 February alongside her castmates Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Although the multiverse drama was nominated for 11 awards, the resulting 49 winners across all categories were white, prompting criticism of the Baftas for its lack of diversity.
In a recent interview with the Financial Times (FT), Yeoh opened up about her hopes for an Oscar win, after she was nominated for best actress.
But the results of the Bafta awards left her with “a certain disappointment”, her husband Jean Todt revealed to the publication.
“There was a certain disappointment, so we didn’t go to the official dinner,” he said. “She ordered Malaysian fast food in the room.”
Just over a week after the Baftas, Yeoh and Quan made history by becoming the first Asian actors to win awards at the Screen Actors Guilt (SAG) awards.
The former Miss Malaysia became the first Asian actor to win best performance by a female actor in a leading role, while Quan won the award for best supporting actor.
The 95th Academy Awards will take place on 12 March. If Yeoh takes home the award, she would be the first Malaysian ever to win an Oscar, as well as the first Southeast Asian actor to win in the category.
Quan has also been nominated for best supporting actor, and co-star Stephanie Hsu is a best supporting actress nominee.
Asked what winning an Oscar would mean to her, Yeoh told the FT: “It would be [the] ultimate dream. Yes! I would go back upstairs and get on my knees and pray for it.”
She also revealed what her preparations on the day of the Oscars would entail.
“The day will start like all days,” she said. “I will wake up and do my exercises, because it clears my head, it preps my skin, it makes me glow from inside.
“Then my ‘glam team’ will come – hopefully I won’t be too nervous not to eat – and do the hair and makeup and all those kinds of things. Then hop in the car, go to the event place and bring the little gold man home!”
